MaudlinMutantMollusk:way south: Zalan: Didn't see anything overly crazy about him or how he drove. Pretty cool looking design.

No helmet, no safety gear, and the bike looks like it was held together with bailing wire.

/Still a cool way to die./I've always wondered why cool movie bikes never become production models.

The special effects to make them street legal are way too expensive

I know the batpod is a functional machine on its own.The physics behind a motorcycle are simple enough that most movie designs should be possible.

/Every custom bike maker says they can build any machine you dream of./But they only seem to build the bikes from "Easy Rider"./Been wanting the bike from AKIRA since I was fifteen.../I'll settle for a batpod, or the bike from Priest.

In the late 60's I was riding a minibike dad made with a 197 cc 2 cycle Villers motorcycle engine and 3 speed transmission and a cool green metalflake fuel tank. This kids minibike is stupid looking. I bet it won't go 60 or climb anything you got the nads to try. And it looks stupid. Oh and noone had to tell me to wear a helmet.

way south:MaudlinMutantMollusk: way south: Zalan: Didn't see anything overly crazy about him or how he drove. Pretty cool looking design.

No helmet, no safety gear, and the bike looks like it was held together with bailing wire.

/Still a cool way to die./I've always wondered why cool movie bikes never become production models.

The special effects to make them street legal are way too expensive

[dl.dropbox.com image 800x600]

I know the batpod is a functional machine on its own.The physics behind a motorcycle are simple enough that most movie designs should be possible.

/Every custom bike maker says they can build any machine you dream of./But they only seem to build the bikes from "Easy Rider"./Been wanting the bike from AKIRA since I was fifteen.../I'll settle for a batpod, or the bike from Priest.

it's amazing when your poor, what you'll do to recreate something you really want (assuming poor since it's vietnam). Also, not surprised it's from vietnam, they like motorcycles like a fat kid likes cake.

way south:/I've always wondered why cool movie bikes never become production models.

Because there are a multitude of little rules and niggles that a production model has to adhere to that the concept/fictional version doesn't. Not even the big stuff just small crap like "x inch gap between fuel tank and turning gear" all of which you need certified and checked before sending the machine out for approval and then sale.

There is no way the Batpod with it's rolling wheels for tight turns would get certified for road use, unlikley an actual human could hold on whilst it manoeuvred that way either. Same as Kaneda's bike from Akira with the tilting front end.

untaken_name:moike: studebaker hoch: If a bike design is good, people will be using it.

If they're not, then it isn't.

Explain Harley Davidson...

Suits and nerds don't make *everything* better. That's how I explain HD.

God forbid the suits and nerds at HD get in on the design process and insist on evolution of design or the introduction of innovation, R&D, and technology. Who knows what kind of abomination a motorcycle mfgr. might crank out if such blasphemy were allowed to happen behind closed doors.

moike:untaken_name: moike: studebaker hoch: If a bike design is good, people will be using it.

If they're not, then it isn't.

Explain Harley Davidson...

Suits and nerds don't make *everything* better. That's how I explain HD.

God forbid the suits and nerds at HD get in on the design process and insist on evolution of design or the introduction of innovation, R&D, and technology. Who knows what kind of abomination a motorcycle mfgr. might crank out if such blasphemy were allowed to happen behind closed doors.

You have completely misunderstood me, sir. I was not disparaging nerds and suits, far from it. I was merely attempting to relay my feelings that the recent(ish) takeover of HD by said suits and nerds did not improve the company, and, indeed, turned what was formerly an honest product into an over-engineered piece of junk. I have nothing against well-engineered bikes. I notice you posted a picture of a Ducati, not a Harley, in making your point. I assume thereby that we are not actually at odds. I, too, find the Ducati line to be excellent.

Unfortunately snobby orthodontists and small business CEO's turned Ducati from a honest italian motorcycle company that had some good performing bikes and interesting styling into an over-engineered (still well-performing) ridiculously overpriced status symbol to rival Harley Davidson, just on the other end of the spectrum. I won't say if I had to choose between one or the other I wouldn't take a ducati, but the starbucks-cruising would get tiresome after a while. paying $25,000+ for a sportbike is something I could never get myself to do.

Gotta love Vietnam - only place I've been where you'll see a family of four riding a moped.

Indonesia as well. Saw a lot of that there. Also saw a guy fall asleep on the highway and plow straight into a concrete rail (not at an angle). His nuts hit the handlebars, smashed in further by his passenger and what his passenger was carring in his lap. They weren't going slow, but not fast enough to flip the bike over the rail or toss either of them off. Given how cabbies drive there, it's a wonder I even caught the accident as it happened.